You will need
- Sizzix Big shot Machine (660200)
- Sizzix Bigz Die - Skull & Crossbones (664215)
- Sizzix Bigz XL Alphabet Die - Handmade (664218)
- Greyboard (or mountboard)
- DecoArt Media acrylics (English Red Oxide, Raw Sienna and Quinacridone Gold)
- DecoArt Americana Acrylic paint - Avacado Dip
- Black Gesso
- Screw head brads
- Natural sponge
- Spritzer
- Mens hair wax/clay
I am fastidious when it comes to my Family Christmas preparation but I always seem to leave Halloween until last minute. This year I am away from home in the four days preceding Halloween so I need to prep early. My daughter adores Halloween as do so many other nine year old kids so I've created a little hanging sign for our front door which is the first of many spooky makes.
Both of the dies I'm using today are designed by Tim Holtz who is a big fan of the scary season. I die-cut all of the shapes from greyboard before snipping a small section from one of the bones so that they lie flat on the sign. Next, I cut the background to size before rounding off the corners with a punch and added some screw head brads.
After attaching all of the die-cuts to the background I painted everything with black gesso and set the sign aside to dry.
To mimic the effect of rust, I applied two shades of acrylic using a natural sponge starting with English Red Oxide followed by Raw sienna.
Before painting the sign, I strategically applied some hair wax/clay to certain areas using a strip of card or a palette knife concentrating around the edges, It is important to do this in quite a random, haphazard style, it will always look cool afterwards. Before applying the green paint to a craft mat I added a little water to thin it out slightly. I applied the paint with a wide brush and I wasn't too careful or particular about the coverage. as you can see there are plenty of streaks and little pockets of black showing through around the die-cuts.
After leaving the paint to dry naturally I took a kitchen towel and rubbed away the underlying hair wax, the effect is soooo realistic!
The last step is to apply some streaks of rust. I applied some Quinacradone Gold paint to the craft mat and watered it down slightly before randomly dragging it over the sign. Finally, I applied some of the paint to the exposed rust areas before spritzing with clean water and allowing gravity to do the rest.
The shots above show just how effective the hair wax resist effect is...cool!
Hope you have enjoyed some of the fun techniques shown, I'll try to gut in some more cool Halloween makes to share with you before the end of October.
Thanks for Stopping by, see you again soon.